By Lieke Kuiper
Officially Iran counts 67.286 people infected with the Coronavirus. Officially it is the 7th country with the most infected people. Many Iranians, however, claim these statistics are incorrect. According to the Dutch news site NOS, Iranians claim that their government did not want to jeopardize the elections, and thus kept the outbreak of the virus under the hood. Apart from not installing any countermeasures as soon as the virus had found its way to Iran, the government also did nothing to keep the virus away initially. Where other countries suspended travelling from and to China, Iran did not do such things.
It even seems as if the government tried to artificially suppress the official statistics. Medical personnel testified that they were forced to come up with alternative causes of death, only to keep the numbers of people who died of Coronavirus low. The large shortage of medical equipment, in the meantime, drastically increased the number of people who have died because of the virus. The spread of the virus is made worse because of the economic need many people feel to keep working, and thus to keep gathering outside of their safe homes.
The further spread of the virus is also fuelled by the overcrowded prisons. While Teheran, under pressure of the human rights ambassadors of the UN, has released 85.000 prisoners and increased the measures for the remaining prisoners, the issue remains precarious.
The fact that the virus is not yet under control, even shows in the official statistics. On one day, as much as 1.075 new infections were reported, according to Reuters. A tweet of an Iranian health ministry spokesman confirms this grave image; as much as 50 people contract the virus in Iran every hour. According to Foreign Policy the death rate in Iran is approximately 6 people every hour. The astonishing number of over 1000 infections a day is thus the rule rather than the exception; one day the number of new infections in 24 hours even came to 3.111.
In light of the earlier mentioned artificial suppression of the official statistics by the government, other organisations monitoring the virus across the world even went so far as to state that the actual numbers might even be 5 times higher than the official statistics. Even Western Intelligence agencies claim that the actual death rate is many times higher than the numbers the Iranian government present.
While this widespread coverup has certainly put the Iranian national health at risk, it has also caused problems in many other countries. The reluctance to restrict free travel from an to Iran has not only sped up the spread from the virus from China to Iran. It has also led to the spread of the virus from Iran to South-East Asia, Europe and Canada. As many as 50.000 Iranians have travelled to these places when the Coronavirus was already well-present in Iran. It is thus highly likely that, while the world was still focussed on restricting travelling from and to China, Iranian travellers quietly and assumingly unknowing, introduced the virus to the rest of the world.
Next to this, President Rohani already proclaimed he would relax some of the measures next week. So, while the infection rate is incredibly high, the medical care system cannot deal with the large influx of patients, and the death toll keeps rising, Rohani is planning on opening up some stores again.
In light of the strict economic sanctions Iran still faces from the US combined with the economic setback Iran is facing due to the virus, it is somewhat understandable why the Iranian government is trying to save its economy. The problem, however, is that in doing so Rohani seems to forget the health care system and most importantly the toll it takes on all the Iranians that are either afraid for the virus, are already sick or have died.
Stopping the high infection rate and death toll is, however, easier said than done. The poor economic situation of Iran directly influences the capacity of the health care system. Continuing a full lockdown might slow the infection rate, but it also leads to even greater medical shortages. Combine that with the already existing lack of medical equipment and you have a true catastrophe.
While criticism regarding the initial reaction of the Iranian government is certainly in place; we are morally obliged, one might even say, to disapprove of the way Iran handled the start of the Corona crisis. What we must not forget, however, is the precarious situation the country finds itself in.
Regardless of if the government handled right or not, the Iranian population face a true public health disaster. The combination of the poor economic situation and the need for many people to still travel to and from work, combined with the possibility of lessening the anti-Corona measures, the enormous lack of medical and protective equipment and the enormous influx of new patients all make that the Iranian medical system is on the verge of collapsing, while the still healthy part of the Iranian population has virtually no protection against getting infected as well.
All in all, we cannot really blame all those Iranians fleeing their country when they were still allowed to come to Europe, Canada or South-East Asia. While Iran fights this enormous crisis and the rest of the world tries to battle Corona as well, all we can do is Stay Home and Stay Safe. Keep your distance, help others where you can and keep fighting (online) for the right at a safe living environment!
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